ModernLuddite:People actually spend time and money trying to look a certain way. That being the case, of COURSE you should judge them based on their chosen aesthetic presentation. That's what they want you to do.

Most of the people I play Warcraft with are people I met through a knitting website. It's pretty funny to go on a raid and have chatter about favorite patterns and yarn weights interspersed with strategy and instruction on how to take down the boss and stay out of the Bad.

So, yeah. I have a completely different stereotype to work with than the rest of the world.

ModernLuddite:People actually spend time and money trying to look a certain way. That being the case, of COURSE you should judge them based on their chosen aesthetic presentation. That's what they want you to do.

I know, I spend a lot of time in the mornings putting on my gender and race, but dammit, it's worth it when people see that I'm a upstanding white male.

People actually spend time and money trying to look a certain way. That being the case, of COURSE you should judge them based on their chosen aesthetic presentation. That's what they want you to do.

Actually I spend so little time and money on my appearance that one might mistake me for a homeless person. The major difference is hygienic, and that usually vanishes when comparing my look to homeless guys who stay at the shelter down the street (it has working showers, for one thing). Good clothes I save for special occasions, like haunting the edges of Fark gatherings without letting anybody know who I am. What you think of my appearance is your problem: I fit right in among my age, sex and class peers in my current neighborhood, which seems pretty evenly divided among whites, blacks and Latinos.

Regardless of how I'm dressed or groomed you'll still see a moderately homely, slightly overweight middle-aged white guy, i.e. a non-hottie. Why lipstick the pig when I can spend my cash on whiskey?

On the other hand I think very little of young men who spend a lot of money to wear oversize pants they can't manage to keep up, shoes or boots they don't seem to know how to tie and funny-looking caps they put on backwards or sideways and from which they fail to remove the stick-on labels. Not to mention all those ugly and often misspelled tattoos. It's been like that for over 15 years too: did the rest of the country outgrow this "dress like a dimwit" fashion or is Lexington, KY still current?

Fano:Electric_Banana: I love Cheetos but I hate orange fingers. Everyone looks at me like I'm a freak when I eat them with chopsticks, so I just don't eat Cheetos anymore.

[wondermark.com image 720x278]

Been there. Done that. I use chopsticks when I eat popcorn and other messy snack foods. This is especially useful when I am reading or typing away at the computer keyboard while I eat.

I'd say that great minds think alike but I notice that people almost always use that saying when a trivial coincidence has occurred, such as two people reaching for the same package. I find that small minds think alike and great minds all think differently, which is why they think of things, even obvious things, that other people never think of.

Chopsticks have many uses

Eating messy snack foods.

Getting small pickles and olives out of jars (use the large, rough, cooking chopsticks if you can get them)

I keep steel (Korean) chopsticks at my desk to eat Asian food instead of disposable chopsticks. Easy to wash. Last forever. Can be used for other purposes such as eating non-Asian food or catching flies to prove you are ready to be a Shaolin Monk.

Picking up tiny parts and things you drop but can not reach. They're essentially paired fing-longers.

How to mix three litres of lemonade in a two litre jug.

Add sugar and lemon juice to jug. Mix thorough, adding water to top up the jug. Pour lemonade into glasses to serve, filling glass two thirds of the way. Add the remaining third of the water to complete the mixture.

How to avoid spreading germs

Cough into your elbow, or a handkerchief placed on your elbow. Do not cough on your hands. This is the best way to spread germs as you touch your face or objects such as doorknobs.

How to make your messages greener

Use a pencil dammit. Disposable plastic pens are wasteful. If you don't need to keep a note permanently, don't use a printer or a pen. Use a pencil. You can even get pencils made of recycled newsprint. I have a dozen of them. I never use a pencil, dammit. Besides, people lose more pencils than I need. They lose a lot of paper clips, matches, etc., as well. There are some articles you never need to buy.

On reading that 85% of accidents involve Green Cabs rather than Blue, my first question was "What percentage of cabs are Green Cabs?" and my second question was "Is the number of accidents greater, equal to or less than you would expect given the number of Green versus Blue Cabs and other factors that might influence accident rates?"

The problem with stereotypes is that they are often based on anecdotal evidence and perceptions, both of which are subject to serious distortion in the form of confirmation bias and other human vices or errors.

Yes, short hand rules are handy. But they are seldom correct enough to be used as laws. They are suggestions, vague rules of thumb rather than regulations or rules.

In fact, a real rule of thumb is much better than a stereotype. Your thumb can be measured accurately and made into a more accurate ruler. Your thumb stays the same size and does not change on a whim, unlike stereotypes and other kinds of prejudice. Your thumb does not self-confirm and exaggerate itself until it becomes a monster of hatred, fear and rage.

In short, the stereotype of people who believe in stereotypes as people who are woefully prejudiced is a fair stereotype. Stereotypers are often stereotypically stereotypical.

If you catch my drift.

But I drift.

In our city we have several cab companies. The largest has hundreds of cab, and each successive company is much smaller in accordance with what is sometimes called a "power law". Then there are the many gypsy cabs that aren't completely legal. Those cabdrivers are one-offs.

Needless to say, the top company has the most accidents. I don't have to look at the stats. It is that much bigger than the next biggest company. I can also predict with some confidence that the number of accidents had by the successful cab companies are more frequent (because of their larger territories, more numerous drivers with less experience of particular areas, and more frequent trips, more numerous customers, etc.) than mere numbers would success. The top company may look bad because it is good, which is to say, for the same reasons that it is biggest and top dog. But one of the reasons that they are the top company might be that they have better drivers or safer cars than the next few companies.

Of course, other factors are involved--politics, business practices, territories, etc. But all in all there is no reason to believe a naked statistic. It has to be clothed with circumstances and other numbers to mean anything, and so does a rule of thumb or a stereotype.

You need to understand how qualitative and quantitative statements are different, how they work, and what else you need to know before you think about them or act on them.

This being an article on a conservative site, it is probably intended (or unconsciously biased) to reassure conservatives that their prejudices are justified and rational, although they may not be and very likely include many that are just apeshiat crazy.

brantgoose:Fano: Electric_Banana: I love Cheetos but I hate orange fingers. Everyone looks at me like I'm a freak when I eat them with chopsticks, so I just don't eat Cheetos anymore.

[wondermark.com image 720x278]

Been there. Done that. I use chopsticks when I eat popcorn and other messy snack foods. This is especially useful when I am reading or typing away at the computer keyboard while I eat.

I'd say that great minds think alike but I notice that people almost always use that saying when a trivial coincidence has occurred, such as two people reaching for the same package. I find that small minds think alike and great minds all think differently, which is why they think of things, even obvious things, that other people never think of.

Chopsticks have many uses

Eating messy snack foods.

Getting small pickles and olives out of jars (use the large, rough, cooking chopsticks if you can get them)

I keep steel (Korean) chopsticks at my desk to eat Asian food instead of disposable chopsticks. Easy to wash. Last forever. Can be used for other purposes such as eating non-Asian food or catching flies to prove you are ready to be a Shaolin Monk.

Picking up tiny parts and things you drop but can not reach. They're essentially paired fing-longers.

How to mix three litres of lemonade in a two litre jug.

Add sugar and lemon juice to jug. Mix thorough, adding water to top up the jug. Pour lemonade into glasses to serve, filling glass two thirds of the way. Add the remaining third of the water to complete the mixture.

How to avoid spreading germs

Cough into your elbow, or a handkerchief placed on your elbow. Do not cough on your hands. This is the best way to spread germs as you touch your face or objects such as doorknobs.

How to make your messages greener

Use a pencil dammit. Disposable plastic pens are wasteful. If you don't need to keep a note permanently, don't use a printer or a pen. Use a pencil. You can even get pencils made of recycled newsprint. I have a dozen of t ...